Lift trucks

[Bob Collins]

Is there some technical reason that many bucket trucks and man lifts are parked in the raised position? I could understand a rental place to attract attention, but the local electric company does the same in their yard. I've seen it a lot but don't know if it is to keep vandals out or what. Funny answers accepted, but looking for serious one too.

 

[urbancase]

Do not have a fact answer of reason, at work it park raised up to make room, I just bought one for the farm and I plan to put a lean to on a shed to store it under and I may do the same so something else can go in that space. I do the training at work on anyone that is aloud to use and the osha standard does not state anything about it.

 

[Mule Meat]

A lot of it has to do with thief prevention.

 

[Fritz Maurer]

I always wondered the same thing about combines.

 

[Jim.ME]

Manlifts take up much less room if the boom is elevated. That makes the boom and basket less likely to be run into as well.

Some bucket trucks have booms/baskets that hang outside the truck footprint and raising the boom up brings it inside the truck footprint and is less likely to be hit by a similar truck, if the overhangs of the two booms are misjudged passing by a parked truck particularly turning a corner.

Some places simply want them parked that way for their own reasons, unknown to anyone outside of the management there.

 

[Stan Coryell]

Is there some technical reason that many bucket trucks and man lifts are parked in the raised position? I could understand a rental place to attract attention, but the local electric company does the same in their yard. I've seen it a lot but don't know if it is to keep vandals out or what. Funny answers accepted, but looking for serious one too.

They put the buckets in the air so that you don't have to drag your tools, rigging, and harness out of the bucket every night. A lot of the 65' buckets don't touch the ground and are not easy to get in and out of.

 

[flying belgian]

I always wondered the same thing about combines.

Do you mean with the header left up?

 

[Fixingfarmer]

Is there some technical reason that many bucket trucks and man lifts are parked in the raised position? I could understand a rental place to attract attention, but the local electric company does the same in their yard. I've seen it a lot but don't know if it is to keep vandals out or what. Funny answers accepted, but looking for serious one too.

Long response warning but it brings back good memories they have almost all the controls on the ground as well as the basket the exception is driving controls usually can’t move them on the ground

Theft is the big reason knew an outfit that would raise the torch up with the Crane for the same reason if they were going to be gone a few days. Visual advertisement is a real factor as well.

There was a kid in our rental department where I worked would test the JLG man lifts from the basket had no fear windiest day didn’t ever bother him. No harness.

I was fighting electrical issues at an ethanol plant on a brand new 140/80 genie lift I’m not sure which of those numbers is the actual feet of the crazy thing but it’s more than high enough for me. Would always end with the mast halfway up. Since there isn’t a dead engine lower to it I climbed about 20 feet up and manually turned in the pressure compensating cylinder and was very glad to see it slowly drop to the ground safe and sound put it on a truck got it back to the shop

Put a new compensating valve on the cylinder I had adjusted and awaited genie factory tech.

genie factory tech comes flashes software hands me a Culver’s coupon and says have a good day my boss tells the kid to put it back in line I say better test that first USING THE GROUND CONTROLS.

Any guesses as to what happened?

So there’s a pretty good band of severe weather coming green looking cloud mostly calm so far and the kid is now stuck about 60 feet up above a couple terragators and a d8.

I go in the office and ask if we have another 260 dollar valve in the company the answer is no so you have to get him down somehow without that

Well we had a 60 foot JLG. And it looked like it was close to being able to reach him so we pulled it up and he then hopped from one to another (the basket on the other one was pretty tipped as this point he had been trying hard to get down) 60 feet up and we got him down then by using the ground controls he was pretty rattled. Left it that way just like it sat up in the air (not that it would look much different than usual other than on top of the expensive equipment isn’t usually the plan for storage) and called genie back.

If that kid had done it half an hour later closer to quitting time there’s a good chance he would have ridden out that storm in the lift.

Nobody else would operate the thing after that and the kid is an electrician now. Eventually a different location needed the thing and it disappeared

 

[Rich'sToys]

A lot of it has to do with thief prevention.

That was always my assumption. That and vandalism.

 

[Ray,IN]

A lot of it has to do with thief prevention.

And liability JIC someone begins climbing on the equipment and gets injured or killed. It is a reasonable precaution IMO.

 

[SleepyFarmall]

Is there some technical reason that many bucket trucks and man lifts are parked in the raised position? I could understand a rental place to attract attention, but the local electric company does the same in their yard. I've seen it a lot but don't know if it is to keep vandals out or what. Funny answers accepted, but looking for serious one too.

Go ahead and laugh but my silly thought has been so the hydraulic cylinder would stay full of oil and not be prone to rust since it isn't chromed inside like the ram is. That's my uneducated mind at work. Michael

 

[Jim.ME]

Go ahead and laugh but my silly thought has been so the hydraulic cylinder would stay full of oil and not be prone to rust since it isn't chromed inside like the ram is. That's my uneducated mind at work. Michael

Not going to laugh at you but I will try to explain a bit. The oil does not drain out of hydraulic cylinders just because they are horizontal. The amount of oil in either end of a cylinder may change but those double acting hydraulic cylinders do not drain. Unless the gland seal was really gone bad it would take a long time for oil to leak out and the cylinder to rust internally even with the cylinder horizontal. A Personnel lifting device would be out of service with a leak of that magnitude.

Once the air has been purged from the cylinders, they stay full of oil/fluid. Those cylinders have holding/lock valves in the lines on them which require oil pressure to allow the cylinders to move. When the engine is not running with the hydraulic pump engaged moving a lever/valve at the controls will not let a cylinder move, the oil is "locked" in them by the valves on the cylinders.

 

[sms]

The controls on a man lift cannot take too much abuse. We leave them up so kids or vandals cannot damage them. How many pieces of equipment have you seen with all the gauges smashed?

 

[Fixingfarmer]

Not going to laugh at you but I will try to explain a bit. The oil does not drain out of hydraulic cylinders just because they are horizontal. The amount of oil in either end of a cylinder may change but those double acting hydraulic cylinders do not drain. Unless the gland seal was really gone bad it would take a long time for oil to leak out and the cylinder to rust internally even with the cylinder horizontal. A Personnel lifting device would be out of service with a leak of that magnitude.

Once the air has been purged from the cylinders, they stay full of oil/fluid. Those cylinders have holding/lock valves in the lines on them which require oil pressure to allow the cylinders to move. When the engine is not running with the hydraulic pump engaged moving a lever/valve at the controls will not let a cylinder move, the oil is "locked" in them by the valves on the cylinders.

Yes jlg referred to the lock valve on them as a pressure compensating valve I’m not sure why it doesn’t seem like the correct term to me. They could cause issue from time to time and if you wanted to lower one you had to turn in the screw. They came preset so my boss always made me put a new one on when I was done. They would be attached to the outside of the cylinder usually at a port.

I had seen on an older setup a leaking o ring make one go down that was on the cylinder side of that valve but the new ones were pretty much a welded pipe to that valve mounted on the other port (only one valve per cylinder usually on the rod end port so both sides used this valve assembly in the same location)

 

[Pete-IN]

They put their chainsaws and other tools in the bucket so the druggies can't get to them. The tool boxes on the trucks are easily broken in to.

 

[Keith True]

I don't see the power company leaving their booms up in the air here.The rental places leave the baskets up,but that is because they back the machines up to the fence and need the room in front of them.I was in a manlift basket helping to hang some conduit from the ceiling a few years ago.We were in the old crane/trolley passage that was open to the roof 40 feet up.When quitting time came all the workers exited through that big old hallway.We would shut the machine off,and wait for the workers to clear out,usually less than 5 minutes.Went to restart it,nothing.So I slid down the pole,and found the battery cutoff was shut off.It was right at eye level,clearly marked,and some wisea$$ getting off from work reached over and clicked it on his way by.

 

[Bob Collins]

Well. I have learned a lot from all the answers, thanks to each of you. I rented a small lift a few years ago and was trimming some limbs in my yard when I dropped a small branch on the emergency shut off button. Alone in the bucket with no one around I figured I was stuck for a while. Less than 5 minutes a car stopped in shouting distance at a stop sign. I yelled for help and a guy came right over and reset the button. After that I put a can over it and was careful where the limbs fell.

 

[Keith True]

When my friend and I were stuck up in the air,with the deck 34 feet from the floor,he looked at me and said,you'll have to slide down.Vrey unusual,as he was always the jump up and be the first to get a job done kind of guy.Was only afraid of ex-wives and girlfriends.He was a solar installer,and had respect for heights,but not much fear of them.He said he had an irrational fear of going up over the side of that basket and onto the boom.Said climbing up,then over,and down gave him a few seconds of panic.Said he would get the sensation of balancing on a razor edge for a few seconds.He would get the same panic in a bucket truck with an over the center boom knuckle.When you are raising the boom,it's fine.When it hits vertical there is that sickening moment when it changes from going up to going down.That transition gives me the willies,even though I KNOW nothing bad is happening.

 

[Fixingfarmer]

When my friend and I were stuck up in the air,with the deck 34 feet from the floor,he looked at me and said,you'll have to slide down.Vrey unusual,as he was always the jump up and be the first to get a job done kind of guy.Was only afraid of ex-wives and girlfriends.He was a solar installer,and had respect for heights,but not much fear of them.He said he had an irrational fear of going up over the side of that basket and onto the boom.Said climbing up,then over,and down gave him a few seconds of panic.Said he would get the sensation of balancing on a razor edge for a few seconds.He would get the same panic in a bucket truck with an over the center boom knuckle.When you are raising the boom,it's fine.When it hits vertical there is that sickening moment when it changes from going up to going down.That transition gives me the willies,even though I KNOW nothing bad is happening.

booms up high in the basket aren’t a comfortable place for me either there were some who would ride them up so they wouldn’t have to use the stairs on the bins. I would use those stairs 5 or 6 times before taking a 60 foot basket ride. Just seen people stuck too much and get that same feeling you speak of when the second extension of the boom happens while it’s swaying in the wind. I know that counterweight is there and a 100 mph wind is what it would take to go over on flat ground but it isn’t for me. And there isn’t any convincing that changes my mind I go up about 20 to 30 foot and that’s it. Enough to get to everything in this life I need to reach.

 

[SleepyFarmall]

Not going to laugh at you but I will try to explain a bit. The oil does not drain out of hydraulic cylinders just because they are horizontal. The amount of oil in either end of a cylinder may change but those double acting hydraulic cylinders do not drain. Unless the gland seal was really gone bad it would take a long time for oil to leak out and the cylinder to rust internally even with the cylinder horizontal. A Personnel lifting device would be out of service with a leak of that magnitude.

Once the air has been purged from the cylinders, they stay full of oil/fluid. Those cylinders have holding/lock valves in the lines on them which require oil pressure to allow the cylinders to move. When the engine is not running with the hydraulic pump engaged moving a lever/valve at the controls will not let a cylinder move, the oil is "locked" in them by the valves on the cylinders.

Thank You for educating me and what you say makes perfect sense. Michael